Prayer for American Enterprise [at the opening of a Kresge's department store], by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (1956)
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=29558
open_content_license: Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication date_src_start: 1956-00-00 date_src_end: 1956-00-00 languages_meta: [{"name":"English","code":"eng","standard":"ISO 639-3"}] scripts_meta: [{"name":"Latin","code":"Latn","standard":"ISO 15924"}] Date: 2020-01-25
Last Updated: 2025-04-11
Categories: Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah
Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, capitalism, dedications and consecrations, English vernacular prayer, New Jersey, Post–World War II economic expansion, S.S. Kresge
Excerpt: A prayer offered at the opening of a department store during the post-WWII economic expansion in the United States. . . .
Content:
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Source (English) |
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O Heavenly Father,
as we behold
the abundant display
of this splendid merchandise mart,
our hearts rise up to thank Thee
for the fulness of Thy bounty
which burgeons forth
from this promised land
toward which
Thou didst guide
our fathers’ steps.
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We thank Thee for this goodly earth,
its shimmering wheat and sturdy corn,
its snowy cotton and its golden flax;
we thank Thee
for its hills of iron and its mountains of brass,
its mines of coal and its wells of oil;
we thank Thee
for its roaring rivers that sing with power,
and its lapping seas
that bring the wide world to our doorstep.
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We thank Thee,
too,
O Lord,
that Thou hast given us
men
to match our mountains,
men
whose wisdom
has endowed us with the freedom
to use Thy blessings
men
for the greatest good
of the greatest number
in mankind’s history;
whose energy and ingenuity
have made them true partners
with Thee, O Lord,
in the divine process of creation.
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We thank Thee,
O Father,
for the farmer at his plow
and the miner at his drill,
for the mechanic at his lathe
and the printer at his press,
for the shoemaker at his bench
and the steelworker at his furnace,
for the merchandiser at his desk
and the salesgirl at the counter.
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May this great enterprise,
whose open shelves
and abundant displays
symbolize
the fruitage
of the noble partnership
of freemen
working together
under God,
receive Thy blessing,
O Lord,
that it may move forward
in peace and prosperity.
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May those
who labour beneath its roof,
and those
who enter its portals
to share in its abundance,
be ever mindful
of how great
is this simple privilege,
how rich
is the reward
of those who serve each other
and Thee
in honesty and truth
in friendship and in peace.
Amen.
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Rabbi Abraham Soltes’s “Prayer for American Enterprise” was delivered at the opening of the Kresge’s department store in East Orange, New Jersey on October 16, 1956. The prayer was published in his collection of prayers, תפלה Invocation: A Sheaf Of Prayers (1959).
Source(s)
Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Co-authors:
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Name: Avraham Samuel Soltes
Bio: Rabbi Avraham Soltes (1917-1983) was a Reform Jewish rabbi, the Jewish chaplain at the United States Military Academy in West Point, an author and a leading figure in Jewish cultural affairs. He was born in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1937 and received a master's degree from Columbia University in 1938. After being ordained in 1942 by the Jewish Institute of Religion (now HUC-JIR), he served as chaplain at Cornell and McGill Universities and then was assistant rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan from 1946 to 1949. He subsequently served as rabbi at Temple Sharey Tefilo in East Orange and Temple Emanuel in Great Neck. He began his service at West Point as a voluntary chaplain in 1963 and was made a permanent member of the staff in 1981. His interests also took him into commerce, and from 1969 to 1974, he was vice president for community affairs of the Glen Alden Corporation, which in 1972 was merged into the Rapid America Corporation. From 1974 to 1977, he was assistant to the president of Tel Aviv University. He was credited with a key role in the establishment of the New York medical division at the university. In 1981, Rabbi Soltes received the Jabotinsky Award from Prime Minister Menachim Begin for his service to Israel. From 1977 until his death Rabbi Soltes had been the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Chavairuth of Bergen County, in Tenafly, N.J. He participated in many cultural and educational activities that interpreted Jewish art, music and literature. He was chairman of the National Jewish Music Council from 1963 to 1969 and a member of the board of the National Jewish Book Council from 1967 to 1972. Rabbi Soltes, a commentator on Jewish music for American listeners, was the host of a radio program, ''The Music of Israel,'' on WQXR from 1974-1983. Among his writings were Palestine in Poetry and Song of the Jewish Diaspora (Master's thesis HUC-JIR 1942) and Off The Willows: The Rebirth of Modern Jewish Music (1970).
Website:
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/avraham-samuel-soltes
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Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Bio: Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)
Website: https://aharon.varady.net
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription
Featured Image:
Title: Kresge company postcard circa 1950s
Caption: Kresge company postcard circa 1950s
